UFA Trustees

Chair

Jason R Smith

Jason Smith (FCA, DChA, BA Hons) is a Chartered Accountant with over twenty years of experience.  Since 2009, Jason has worked as the Group Finance Controller of a Derbyshire engineering and support business.  Prior to that, he spent thirteen years at a Big Four accountancy firm working with clients across a broad spectrum of industries and sizes, ranging from listed international groups to small owner-managed businesses.  Jason also had numerous charitable clients, achieving the Diploma of Charity Accounting in 2008, and led a Midlands-wide programme of community involvement.

Jason has been the Chair of Governors at his local Junior school for the last eight years, and is on the Board of Governors at his local Secondary Academy.  He is also the treasurer for three local organisations, including a grass-roots football club.

Dr John Lloyd

John Lloyd is a consultant in public health education and Vice- President of the Institute of Health Promotion and Education (IHPE). From 2007 until September 2012 he acted as the Policy Adviser to the PSHE Association having been an Adviser for PSHE and Citizenship Education at the DCSF. He was previously a senior adviser with responsibility for projects and equalities at Birmingham Advisory and Support Service. John was a member of the PSHE Advisory Group and Citizenship Working Party contributing to the development of both the PSHE Framework and statutory Citizenship curriculum in England. Co-author of Democracy Then and Now, Blueprints Health Education and co-editor of the Health Promoting Primary School, the Citizenship Self-evaluation Tool for secondary schools along with other books and articles, he was Adviser to Channel 4 Schools All About Us Television series No Bullying Here and Karl’s Story winning the Royal Television Society Gold Award. Most recently he co-authored the support materials for the annual NatCen Smoking Drinking and Drugs (SDD) use among young people surveys and is a Trustee of the Alcohol Education Trust (AET).

Paul Davis

Paul started his career as a Physics teacher before moving
to ITV where he became a senior producer specialising in
educational programmes. Paul now runs a television and digital production company based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. The company works almost exclusively on programmes that support children’s learning.

Industry recognition includes a Royal Television Society Award and a BAFTA nomination. More recently, Paul has been a participant in NESTA’s prestigious digital business programme which takes on around 20 people annually to mentor them in digital business methods.

Outside the office Paul enjoys travel, especially the coast and city breaks. He lives near Sutton Park which he and his wife aspire to spend more time in!

He joined UFA as a Trustee in 2014 because he said : “My professional role brings me into contact with thousands of children every year, many of them from challenging backgrounds, and I can empathise with them. That UFA is capable of transforming the life chances for these children appeals to me greatly. I had my opportunity, coming from a humble family, through a Grammar School education, it’s my time to help somebody else have theirs.”

Michael Burgess

Michael Burgess is a Director of Barclays working for the UK Private Bank based in the Birmingham office. Michael has worked for Barclays for the last 11 years; he is a Chartered Wealth Manager, with a particular interest in FX and Equity markets.

Michael wanted to join the UFA board of trustees in order to expand on the work he had undertaken whilst acting as a governor of a primary school in Ladywood. He’s hoping to use these skills to assist the board and make a difference to the organisation and developing young people.

Outside of work he is a keen sportsman including running marathons and playing cricket, in addition to sitting on the fundraising committee of St Basils.

Hamira Sultan

Hamira graduated from the University of Sheffield 11 years ago, where she got her BSc in Genetics. She started her career as a research scientist, discovering drugs for the treatment of HIV and Obesity. Within 4 years, after a series of voluntary work initiatives, she realised her passion lay more so in disease prevention, and started her route into Public Health. She undertook her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Birmingham and from then on, was successful in qualifying for Specialty Training. Hamira has worked in a range of organisations as part of her training – Sandwell PCT, the HPA, the University of Birmingham and Birmingham and South Central. Here she has led research collaborations, undertaken three local service, managed and investigated a food poisoning outbreak, developed outcome measures for services for unpaid carers, launched a mental wellbeing service and developed an assisted conception policy across Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull. She was appointed as Consultant in Public Health for Children and Young People and Maternity in Derby City in September 14, where she currently works for the Local Authority.

UFA instantly appealed to Hamira given the key public health work they do in building resilience and supporting development of young people. Hamira is looking really forward to applying some of her public health training in helping UFA achieve even more than they already do.